The key to the new palette was Smith, the 400 runner. “She was well-grounded,” said Aris. “Not like a rookie. She was not mesmerized by the lights.”

Before you knew it, Fayetteville was sweeping Saratoga Springs, 15-70, in the state public class A in early November, and Saratoga, second at NXN in 2009 and 2010, was again considered the Stotans’ chief opposition for Portland.

To add to his challenge, Aris was grief-stricken over the recent passing over his father, dedicating the season to him. Still, there was a championship to defend. Fanning, seeing her coach’s stretched emotions, said, “He put everything he could into the team. We wanted to return the favor.”

Behind Nadel, the deepest NXN girls’ individual field ever took shape. The magnificent Washington pair, Amy-Eloise Neale of team qualifier Glacier Peak, and Katie Knight of North Central, along with Tatnall star Haley Pierce, Fanning, and California champion Sarah Baxter of Simi Valley all gathered in a lead pack chasing Nadel. By 3K, Baxter had her as the split read 10:22.8.

At this point, Fayetteville led with 57 points. Saratoga was second with 84. Tatnall, hoping to challenge for title, was third with 137 after being on Saratoga’s tail earlier. North Shore was fourth (218) and undefeated Midwest champion Carmel of Indiana, running a terrific pack race, held fifth (221).

Fanning, alone as a Fayetteville front-runner, had matured into a team leader. “I was trying to put everyone through as much pain as possible,” she said of the opposition. “I knew I could tolerate it.”

Further back, the Stotans’ other leader, Sischo, the squad’s only senior, was fulfilling her role with the former under-studies. “I’m the last of the ‘old’ generation,” she’d said. “I have to lead the next core, keep the fist together.” The rest of the team followed her, like cygnets following the mother swan.

No one could quite follow Baxter. A sophomore who’d run a brilliant 10:13.00 3200m as a freshman, she’d been hailed as the next Jordan Hasay. But Baxter seemed to lack Hasay’s emotional precocity. “The more I race,” she said, “the better I’m able to keep my cool.” Did she feel cool at NXN? “Definitely not,” she said.

Looking every bit the little girl, Baxter stuck it to the older crowd, running away with abandon to a breathtaking 17:38 victory. She’d overcome youth, as well as the very un-California conditions, showing off a surpassing talent.

Baxter Answers Portland Demands

Baxter’s coach at Simi Valley, Roger Evans, told me before the race, “This is extremely different from everything we face. In southern California they cancel meets when it rains. At Mt. SAC, they have their ‘rain course.’ Rain is considered an evil feature, something to be avoided.”

Evans said that team parents bought hay bales for the girls to practice on. Evans took to soaking school fields so the team “could run through a little moisture.”

Note to Fan-Man and Saratoga: stop laughing.

Sticking with the lead pack all the way, Fanning, New York regional champion, thought, “I put so much work into this, I don’t want to just give it away.” Fay-Man had t-shirts reading, “Give away nothing.”

Leaving nothing to chance, Aris’ son John — who works with the post-collegiate Stotan Racing team and formerly helped with the high school group–pulled out a jar of sand brought back from Portsea, Australia, by one of the “Original Stotans,” Owen Kimple, a member of the 2004 NXN runner-up squad. Portsea was the home of the famed Australia coach, Percy Cerutty, whom the elder Aris uses as a philosophical touchstone.

Pure Values Guide “Stotan” Runners

“Looks like baby food,” I mentioned to John.

“Stotan food,” he said.

Pierce, Knight and Neale came across second, third and fifth, with Fanning sandwiched in fourth to lead Fayetteville. “I was running on fumes,” said Fanning. “I couldn’t take another step.”

Sischo, headed for Providence, placed 21st with a trio of young scorers within 13 seconds of her. With displacement, it was Fay-Man 60 and Saratoga 84. Toga, led by the lanky freshman Estrella Smith, was second for the third straight year with a 33-second spread. It was the closest of any of Fayetteville’s six victories. The 1-2 New York finish added yet more gravitas to the empire state girls’ aura.

Tatnall earned third (182) on a No. 6-runner tie-breaker with New Trier of Illinois. Carmel, with the tightest spread of the meet, 15 seconds — in this competition, can you believe that? — held onto fifth.

As every year, the questions came: how does Fay-Man do it?

Perhaps one answer can be found in the sentiments of Sischo, who held back tears as she considered this, her last NXN, and the responsibility of passing the torch. “I have to make sure that everyone understands the culture of the program,” she said. “Every part of your life has to be geared toward excellence.”

I asked her if the newer kids readily embraced that idea. “They come into the program. They don’t know any other way,” she said.

Then I asked Katie if she regarded the Stotan ideal of simplicity and selflessness, of work as a privilege, of team members empowered by one another, any differently now as a senior than she had early on.

“When I was young,” she said, “Stotanism was something I did. Now Stotan is something I am.”